Nearly nine months have past since hotel workers at the Hyatt Regency in Denver made the decision to unionize, and Colorado Confidential has learned that employees are still without a contract.
The Hyatt, located at the Convention Center downtown, has been touted as the only unionized hotel in the city–a boon to Denver’s bid for the 2008 Democratic Convention.
But according to one local labor leader, a contract is a necessary part of the union process.“The contract is the core to what a union is. It’s a binding agreement between the workers and their employer that covers everything from wages and promotions and working conditions,” says Leslie Moody, president of the Denver Area Labor Federation (DALF).
The labor group UNITE HERE successfully organized the Hyatt in September, and it is unknown when both sides will come to an agreement.
“There’s been a lot more activity in an attempt to reach an agreement in the last couple of months,” Moody notes.
In April Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean traveled to Denver to visit with local officials and smooth out labor disputes-which ranged from a lack of unionized hotels to using the nonunion Pepsi Center as a venue.
DNC delegates were in Denver yesterday touring the city’s facilities.
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